During the last show (or the one before) Flair explicitly mentions that he's not allowed to drink during the shows.

 

The Reid story was great. I had never heard about it.

Knobbs was pretty hilarious this week.

Knobbs was pretty hilarious this week.

Knobbs was on the Steve Austin show a while back and he was hilarious there too. Seems like the kind of guy that would be kept around to entertain the boys. Kind of like a Captain Lou.

Hilarious that this show is now sponsored by a mattress company.

Flair reading his texts is another one of those hugely jarring things you'd never hear on any other podcast. He's like your mother trying to use technology.

Flair reading his texts is another one of those hugely jarring things you'd never hear on any other podcast. He's like your mother trying to use technology.

Also a "only Flair can pull off this shit" moment was him trying to quietly ask Conrad "what was the mattress company's name?" before trying to plug it with a joke comment during the phone call with (I believe) Knobbs.

Austin ep is best ever

Austin ep is best ever

The Blackjack Mulligan story about wanting to punch out Lex Luger but leaving because he feared he'd actually kill him is the GOAT story Flair's ever told.

 

#2 is always him telling the Hunter story about him introducing himself to Race and Race saying Kowalski's "work was the shits."

 

Knobbs was pretty hilarious this week.

Knobbs was on the Steve Austin show a while back and he was hilarious there too. Seems like the kind of guy that would be kept around to entertain the boys. Kind of like a Captain Lou.

 

 

It would make sense, considering that the Nasty Boys seem to come up in at least a third of all the road stories you hear from wrestlers who were active at the time, if not more.

 

Austin ep is best ever

 

The Blackjack Mulligan story about wanting to punch out Lex Luger but leaving because he feared he'd actually kill him is the GOAT story Flair's ever told.

 

#2 is always him telling the Hunter story about him introducing himself to Race and Race saying Kowalski's "work was the shits."

Yep

Also nice to hear it confirmed that the MSG "curfew" time is still going, and that while it was kayfabed as some kind of curfew back in the day, it was/is legit in terms of union overtime.

Flair has had two of my least favorite people to listen to on recently, Bruce Prichard and Mark Madden, and actually made them both listenable. We're really going to test Flair's miracle worker skills because today's guest? Vince Russo.

I couldn't finish the Madden one. How about you listen to this one first for us and report back.

Russo on Austin's podcast might actually be insightful, since the two theoretically worked together on some of the biggest angles in RAW history. Not sure if I can stomach Ric Flair making Vince Russo look good though.

Pretty sure the Russo ep will be the first I skip.

I've enjoyed every single guests including Madden and Pritchard. Will check out and report back.

I don't know. If Flair pretends to praise some of Russo's ideas or puts over the feud with David in 2000, I might have to tap out.

I tapped out, Russo was the drizzling shits. Same old crap he's been pushing for a decade.

Come on, bro.

I agree. Russo would make a terrible publicist. His attempt at spinning his career is terrible.

 

Russo: "I was watching Nitro to get familiar with the product and they had Ric Flair v. Hulk Hogan on free tv. Go back and watch so you know I'm telling the truth"

 

-Couldn't find that match anywhere near him starting. Unless he means the Nitro where the two tagged.

 

Russo: "After I left they brought you back like nothing happened" (referring to desert burial)

 

Flair: "No, you called me back because Funk quit."

 

Russo: "Uh ..."

 

- After Conrad mentioned Judy Bagwell on a Pole

 

Russo: "I bet my house and kids Judy Bagwell on a pole would draw a bigger rating than an 8 man tag that ran through two commercial breaks"

 

Just complete bullshit.

Did Flair or Conrad hold his feet to the fire on anything? Or did they play nice?

 

(I'm asking because I don't want to listen to this one.)

Did Flair or Conrad hold his feet to the fire on anything? Or did they play nice?

 

(I'm asking because I don't want to listen to this one.)

From what I listened to (about half), they were not nicey nice. Conrad colder than Ric was. Flair mainly just played up the fact that he wasn't responsible for the death of WCW. Mostly though, they just let him rant.

 

The only bit that is even close to conflict is where Flair says that success in the 90s was because of the stacked roster (and draws the analogy to 80s NWA) and Russo maintains that it was down to creative. Flair really doesn't agree with him but doesn't start arguing. Apart from Bret, this was the guy where you could tell these two aren't IRL buddies the most.

 

I would skip this one though, Russo really is the shits. I think he was a lot better on Austin.

Russo is ridiculous and obviously shirks responsibility for a lot of things, but so does the whole cabal of people who are to blame for WCW's death. Bischoff buries Russo and Sullivan. Sullivan buries Bischoff, Nash and Russo. Russo buries Bischoff and Hogan. Hogan buries Russo. Nash buries whoever he's not working with this year. Then the moment any two of them are in the same room they hug and start burying the rest of their fellow Gestapo. They're all in denial and all have foggy memories about what they each booked.

 

Thought Russo's show was a lot more interesting than Pritchard's. Your mileage may very if this was the same song-and-dance he trots out everywhere, but this was actually the first interview of his that I've bothered with. At least half of what Russo is saying here likely complete BS, but it was interesting BS and it felt like he had if nothing else a unique vantage point for two key moments in wrestling history. Thought it was particularly interesting to hear about his dynamic with Vince and Linda, the latter being his boss at the magazine.

 

Even the lies are interesting: the way Russo talks about how much he loved David and adored working with Flair gives insight into why he kept getting hired: he's good at stroking the ego of whoever he's working with. The Pritchard interview was pretty bland in comparison (though to be fair, it feels unkind to call the part about his wife's cancer bland), and I don't recall hearing anything new or particularly insightful coming out of it.

 

Austin was fantastic as always. Even when he's a guest, he's able to take the reins and act like a gracious host.

Parv, thanks for saving me the trouble of listening to this. Flair's podcast has been gold so far (well maybe a silver or bronze on Pritchard) but happy to allocate those minutes elsewhere.

Did Flair or Conrad hold his feet to the fire on anything? Or did they play nice?

 

(I'm asking because I don't want to listen to this one.)

Flair was cool with him. He disagreed with some points Russo made but it was just a standard conversation with differences of opinion. Conrad didn't say much. When he did he took the passive aggressive approach. Which is always lame.

 

Russo fawned over Flair at one point for saying in an interview that it wasn't Russo that killed WCW. Flair said he didn't know people said that he would have set the record straight years ago.

 

Russo is defensive and has a higher opinion of his worth than he should. Like most people in the wrestling business. As always he'll say some things that are right when criticizing the business. Where things would get ugly is if you asked what his solution would be.

 

Someone really should tell Russo that when you repeatedly say "I'll be honest with you" or some variation of that phrase you are telling people you're full of shit usually.